Laurie Franklin
Halloween Night 2008
Our first featured artist at the House of Shadows is Laurie Franklin, who lives in Diamond Bar, California with her husband of 26 years, Chuck, and beloved 12 1/2 year old yellow lab, Emily. Laurie always enjoyed Halloween and became interested in the crafting opportunities when she discovered the HalloweenForum in October, 2003. Laurie says, “I was amazed at the creativity and skill found there as well as the camaraderie of its members”.
Although Laurie was experienced in a number of other crafts; including woodworking, sewing, gardening, and home decor, she had never applied those skills to Halloween-related art. After lurking in the shadows for about a year she was caught by the spirit and knew it was time to make her first monster. She really liked the idea of using mache but had no background in art, anatomy or anything else she felt was relevant. But Laurie didn’t let that stop her! Her first props included a witch and a vampire that were not built to be anatomically correct. She describes those first works of art as “…a hairy, ear-less witch and a bald vampire with funky ears”.
Her next build, a werewolf, challenged Laurie to combine human and canine features. She used faux fur as hair for the first time and made good use of her dog’s nose, ears, and teeth as a reference for building the werewolf. Laurie built her confidence along the way by reminding herself, “… it’s a monster and whatever I do, it’ll be fine.”
With three props complete, Laurie decided to add Frankenstein to her growing collection of monsters. She knew Frankenstein had to be over-sized and wanted his ears to be a bit more accurate than the vampire. This is where the advice of a very talented forum member and skilled sculptor named blacklightmike (Mike Melillo) was called into play. Laurie had admired his work for a long time and says his advice was not only helpful, it “saved me”. She used a tracing of her husband’s hands and enlarged them for this character.
After playing around with making pumpkin faces for awhile Laurie knew she had to make “The Bride” of Frankenstein. She was determined to sculpt a character with anatomical accuracy this time. Laurie felt a need to learn more about the subject so she purchased some anatomy and sculpting books. She also asked for critiques from pro sculptors along the way while working on “The Bride”; which helped keep her from going too far off course. This project gave Laurie her first experience with using dental acrylic. “The Bride’s” teeth were made by Laurie using a mold of her own teeth.
Not one to just practice what she knows, Laurie now wanted to play around with skin textures. Her dear friend, “Spookineer”, made a mechanism for her in which a pair of eyes would move very slowly as if looking around a room. She knew exactly what she would do with this mechanism and proceeded to start sculpting “The Horror Portrait”. Great big eyeballs and tons of wrinkling is what she wanted. He also needed to look like he was breaking through the wall and through a picture frame. This type of sculpture is called “relief” and was another first for Laurie.
“Aloitious” the elf was the next project and Laurie felt he was a nice departure from all the horror related sculpts. Although not a monster, he was still a fantasy character which gave her the freedom to do whatever she wanted with his look. Laurie said with big smile, “I soooo wanted to put fangs on that little guy.”
“Vampiress Morbidia” was named before Laurie had any idea what color hair or eyes she would get. She only knew that she wanted her to be beautiful, yet frightening. Vampiress Mobidia also had to be anatomically accurate. It was such a fascinating experience to watch Morbidia’s transformation, each coat of paint gave her face more depth, more character until you expected her bodiless head to blink or move. And then it happened…
I will never forget the day Laurie posted a notice about Mobidia’s accident. Her beautiful work-in-progress fell over and suffered a broken nose and cracked skull. But with the loving support of her husband, who she refers to as wonderfully tolerant, Laurie dried her tears and pulled herself together after a day of mourning. She rebounded with her wonderful sense of humor, got right back to work, repaired the damage and finished this awe inspiring work months before Halloween night.
Gallery of Laurie’s Halloween Projects 2006 - 2008
We will be taking a closer look at Laurie’s work on Vampiress Morbidia this week, and with luck she will allow me to post a more detailed look at all of her projects in the future. It is encouraging to note that Laurie did not discover her sculpting interest or talent before the age of 55. As one who shares “age digits” in common with Laurie for a few days each year, I am inspired to jump in with both feet and see what I can accomplish as I continue to study her work.
In closing for today I leave you with these words of inspiration from Laurie Franklin …. “Although I did not have any kind of art training, I didn’t let that stop me from trying new things. I never would have dreamt that I could sculpt. So I guess the message here is never say never and don’t assume that you cannot create something wonderful without first giving it a try….you never know!”
Stay tuned , we’ll be back soon to take a closer look at the birth of a vampiress….
